Thursday 2 February, 5-7pm, free of charge at our Bishopsgate shop
Uncorked is not a trendy wine merchant. But sometimes - just occasionally - we find ourselves ahead of the curve. Such is the case with Freeman Winery. On a trip to California many years ago, we went in search of some fine Sonoma County Pinot Noir, in order to address our perennial shortage of this sensual substance. At first our enquiries were - quite literally - fruitless. The top producers are small and generally choose to sell to mailing lists of eager customers willing to pay top dollar. But then we discovered Freeman. Ken himself was away on business (he still fits in a day job to help pay the bills), but, undeterred, we made an appointment anyway, and visited the winery and tasted with assistant winemaker Eric Buffington.
What we liked then - apart from the obvious charms of Ken's wines - was the focus on Pinot Noir. In the first place, Freeman only produced Pinot - Chardonnay was added merely by popular request. A handful of top quality Pinots. Just one Chardonnay. Production limited to around 6,000 cases. Remind you of anything? When we first tasted Freeman - which was the 2004 vintage - we thought of Vosne-Romanee. But Ken, modestly, finds most similarity in Volnay.
We've known about the wines for some years. They've been garnering increasing praise from the critics - not least Parker, the IWC and Burghound. But the past couple of months have been something else. Apparently by surprise, Freeman 2009 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast came in at number 22 in the Wine Spectator's 2011 hugely influential Top 100 Wines. A mixed blessing, since the wine sold out immediately. Ken joins us this evening between 5 and 7pm for his first visit to the UK since we've been importing his wines. Come and taste Freeman with the man himself - before the stardom goes too much to his head! /AR
